I heard about this book through the podcast Unresolved Textual Tension. Check out their review below.
The first time I saw the review, I didn’t finish it. I decided it would be better to read the book first, so I recommended it for Envision’s College Success Program’s book club. It was the selection for March, 2023. You can learn more about the program on their web site. If you are a college student who is blind or visually impaired, this may be a great resource for you.
Synopsis
A princess goes on a quest to kill the prince abusing her sister. In order to complete her mission, she must accomplish three impossible tasks.
Book Information
Genre: Fantasy
Category: Adult
Explicit violence: No
Explicit sex: No
Content warnings I noticed: Physical abuse, miscarriage, and child birth
This is a standalone.
Review
The prose is good. Accessible and easy to read.
The story is told in third person limited. We only follow Mara’s point of view. However, every character’s arc feels complete.
This story reminded me of the story structure known as the heroine’s journey. If you’d like to know more about it, read the book of the same title by Gail Carriger. From what I remember about the structure, Nettle & Bone follows it.
There’s a disconnect from the beginning of the story to the rest of it. It sets up the story to be something, but later reverts to something else. In my opinion, this is breaking the promise of the premise. It’s fine if the story starts this way, but it doesn’t come back to it, so there’s no reason for it to be here.
The world-building is barely existent. This is a generic medieval fantasy world and barely anything is added to make it different. The beginning of the story seems to add some world-building, but it means nothing because the author doesn’t come back to it.
The pacing is good. The story is very much a slow-burn. I love it.
The biggest theme in this story is abuse. It’s explored in a few different ways. There’s a very specific scene with a puppet that’s very creepy, but makes sense with the story’s theme. It does give toys a terrible name, though.
A second main theme is friendship. In this story, we have very unlikely friends. Friends that met because of random circumstances.
The characters are great. I love their dynamics. Mara is between active and passive. She’s very active when she can do things, but, when she can’t, other characters take charge.
There’s a romantic plotline, but it’s barely there. I don’t have much to say about it.
Conclusion
Overall, it’s a good story. One of my favorite fantasies this year. I rate it four stars.
Anexis Matos 